Telerik Already Prepping Silverlight Tools

Component vendor Telerik announced this week that it is readying a set of tools for creating applications with Microsoft's Silverlight rich media plug-in, formerly code-named Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere (WPF/E).

"[W]e started conceptualizing our Silverlight product line as soon as we got our hands on the WPF/E bits," Telerik's Hristo Kosev wrote in a blog post. "We've been quiet about this new initiative as our initial plan was to announce the new suite to the community once we reach a CTP or a beta milestone. Nonetheless, our excitement was overwhelming and this time we decided to be more transparent and start showing you our progress on a regular basis even while the product is in its infancy."

Microsoft is planning to release Silverlight as a beta within days at the company's annual MIX conference in Las Vegas. Redmond is also expected to lay out a broader development vision for Silverlight over the three-day show.

Right now, the effort from Redmond seems fairly nascent. The recently released Beta 1 of Visual Studio "Orcas" does not include any Silverlight tools.

In supporting the new technology, Telerik is catering to developers' existing skill sets. The Silverlight controls include a series of client and server-side events, enabling the development of Silverlight apps "in a pretty much traditional way, without the need of thorough understanding of the new Silverlight XAML paradigm," the company said in a statement.

The company says the Silverlight tools will have "seamless integration" with the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX framework. Telerik also recently unveiled a new set of ASP.NET AJAX controls, dubbed "Prometheus."

Telerik has posted information about the Silverlight controls, including a number of demos here.